Questions December 2016

19 December 2016

Food Waste

David Stewart : To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made each year in meeting its target of reducing food waste by 33% by 2025, and what its position is on whether it expects the target to be achieved

Roseanna Cunningham: The Scottish Government established a target to reduce food waste by 33% by 2025 earlier this year.

In November 2016 we announced that the baseline for the target would be the 1.35m tonnes of food wasted in Scotland in 2013.

This is the first time that total food waste arisings have been calculated for Scotland. Zero Waste Scotland has estimated that, between 2009 and 2014, household food waste in Scotland decreased by 37,000 tonnes per year, a 5.7% reduction saving households £92 million per year.

To identify a package of actions to meet the 2025 target, the Scottish Government has launched a series of stakeholder meetings to generate options.

It is important that all sectors contribute and work together to achieve this ambitious target.

16 December 2016

Scottish Natural Heritage

David Stewart : To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Scottish Natural Heritage is refreshing its corporate plan to cover 2017 to 2022.

Roseanna Cunningham: Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) are reviewing their Corporate Plan 2015- 2018 to ensure alignment with the Scottish Government’s latest Programme for Government and to take account of their budget allocation for 2017-18 when this is confirmed. Separately, SNH will be undertaking preparatory work on developing a new corporate plan covering the period 2018-2022.

David Stewart : To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Scottish Natural Heritage refresh of its corporate plan to cover 2017 to 2022 will cover access to assets in decline and not conservation of these assets.

Roseanna Cunningham: This is an operational matter for Scottish Natural Heritage and I have asked the Chief Executive to write to the Member to provide further details.

David Stewart : To ask the Scottish Government which nature conservation projects have been funded through EU-schemes in each of the last five years, broken down by the (a) name of the scheme and (b) contribution Scottish Natural Heritage made toward this.

Roseanna Cunningham: This is an operational matter for Scottish Natural Heritage and I have asked the Chief Executive to write to the Member to provide further details.

8 December 2016

Scenic Areas

David Stewart : To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review national scenic areas in the Highlands and Islands.

Roseanna Cunningham: There are no current plans to review National Scenic Areas in the Highlands and Islands or any other part of Scotland